Irvine firm bends metal to make movie magic

Aria Group co-founder and president Clive Hawkins shows off one of his Irvine-based company's current project, the custom re-working of a Porsche 911 body. The Irvine-based company designs and constructs vehicles for a variety of uses.H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

When Clive Hawkins, an expert engineer, and Charles Taylor, a design guru, started their company in 1995, the idea was to crank out sleek concept cars for automakers. But years later, when the Great Recession knocked Detroit for a loop, the pair had to come up with a new act.

That's when they branched out to the movies.

The result is that today the Aria Group, with 70 employees working in an Irvine industrial park, has used its high-powered computer design software and versatile manufacturing robots to create a futuristic aircraft cockpit for one of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters, "The Avengers." It also worked with Disney's Imagineers to create the Lightning McQueen and Mater car characters parading at Disney parks or roaming around and greeting visitors at California Adventure.

Taylor, Hawkins and their team still make concept cars for the car industry, costing anywhere from $1 million to $5 million depending on whether they actually drive or just sit there and look pretty. But they've also done work for projects as varied as the space-faring SpaceX Dragon Capsule and, for one of Microsoft's game studios, a working Warthog vehicle from the popular "Halo" video game built on a Hummer chassis.

Aria Group fills a very specific need – researching, designing and rapidly manufacturing everything from small parts to a complete vehicle in very small volumes. The company's 60,000-square-foot headquarters is filled with specialized tech gear capable of carving computer-designed shapes from a single block of foam, or 3D printers that build detailed objects layer by layer over many hours.

"When we saw the economy was starting to turn a little bit we took all the skill sets we had and thought, 'OK, who else can benefit from what we do?'" Aria President Hawkins said.

"It turns out the movie business is the perfect application because they've kind of shifted to building a lot of digital models so they can do the animating," Aria Vice President Taylor added. "When it came time for them to make models and get out of their virtual worlds, there weren't very many people who knew how to take those models and turn them into three dimensional things."

Each job has its own challenges. Here's a look at four very different Aria Group projects.

Lightning McQueen, Mater

When they started out, Hawkins and Taylor thought they could make computer models and just hand them off to a client to make the real objects. That changed when their first major client asked for a half-scale model.

Working with Disney, Aria Group helped turn those 3D renderings into real-life working versions of characters made of steel and Plexiglas. The company did small jobs, such as repairing rides. That led to bigger jobs when Disney began work on Cars Land, which opened in 2012.

Lightning McQueen and Mater began as 3D digital models not too different from the main characters seen in the movies "Cars" and "Cars 2."

Mater's engine moves around, and the original idea for Lightning McQueen was to make his whole mouth move as well. In the end, they decided to just go with a stationary open smile. However, projectors inside the car, pointed at the windshield, produce eyes that move back and forth.

Aria Group also helped produce some of the prop vehicles seen in California Adventure's major new ride – Radiator Springs Racers – and the vehicles you sit on in the Luigi's Flying Tires ride.

"It's technically not really all that challenging," Taylor said of the Disney vehicles. "The challenge was to make it durable enough so that it lasts for 20 years."

'The Avengers' Quinjet

In last summer's "The Avengers," Marvel's superheroes get around in an aircraft called the Quinjet. In reality, the jet is a couple of pieces constructed by Aria Group, held together with some artful use of computer generated imagery.

Aria constructed the cockpit, both internal and externally, so actors had real instrument panels to interact with and cameras could shoot from inside or outside the cockpit. It also built a rear-loading bay of the vehicle, which characters depart in dramatic fashion.

The whole scale unit was too large to assemble in Aria Group's Irvine facility. It was made in about half a dozen pieces and shipped off to the movie set.

Previously Aria had worked on a cockpit for a vehicle in "Total Recall." It also made the transforming robot cars in the NASCAR scene of "Transformers 3," and that abstract 1960s architecture in the top secret headquarters of "Men in Black 3."

Aria Group co-founder and president Clive Hawkins shows off one of his Irvine-based company's current project, the custom re-working of a Porsche 911 body. The Irvine-based company designs and constructs vehicles for a variety of uses. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Aria Group co-founders president Clive Hawkins, left, and vice president Charles Taylor hold up a rear quarter carbon fiber panel of a Porsche 911 that they are performing customized bodywork on. Aria Group, based in Irvine, designs, engineers and constructs vehicles for a variety of uses. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Aria Group co-founders are president Clive Hawkins, left, and vice president Charles Taylor. Aria Group is an Irvine company that designs and constructs vehicles for a variety of uses, including Disneyland's Lightning McQueen, a limited edition Porsche or the cockpits of vehicles in several Hollywood movies, including The Avengers, Transformers 3 and Total Recall. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
An Aria Group worker helps construct a custom vehicle that will be shipped and used in Hawaii as a tourist bus. The Irvine-based company designs and constructs vehicles for a variety of uses, including Disneyland's Lightning McQueen, a limited edition Porsche or the cockpits of vehicles in several Hollywood movies, including The Avengers, Transformers 3 and Total Recall. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Aria Group in Irvine constructs a custom bus that will be shipped and used in Hawaii. The Irvine-based company designs and constructs vehicles for a variety of uses, including Disneyland's Lightning McQueen, a limited edition Porsche or the cockpits of vehicles in several Hollywood movies, including The Avengers, Transformers 3 and Total Recall. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Aria Group president Clive Hawkins, left, holds a replica of a human skull that was created with the help of 3D mapping software. Company vice president Charles Taylor observes. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Aria Group president Clive Hawkins shows visitors a customized robot used to create a replica of an F-18 fighter jet's fuselage for a television show. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
An Aria Group artist's rendering highlights what a Ford full sedan concept vehicle might look like. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Aria Group uses computer assisted design in the engineering of vehicles for a variety of uses. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Strong but light-weight carbon fiber is used by Aria Group in the construction of custom vehicles. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Aria Group is an Irvine company that designs and constructs custom products for a variety of uses. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Motorcycles are customized at Aria Group in Irvine. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Aria Group uses foam in a variety of shapes and types. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Aria Group in Irvine designs, engineers and constructs products for a variety of uses. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Workers construct custom products at Aria Group company headquarters in Irvine. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Clive Hawkins is a co-founder and the president of Aria Group in Irvine. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Charles Taylor is vice president and a co-founder of Aria Group in Irvine. H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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